(Newser)
–
From 202,586 to about 1,000 and now winnowed down to 100. That's how many finalists are left competing for a one-way ticket to Mars in the highly publicized Mars One project. The finalists will now compete for one of 24 crew member spots, with the goal of sending those 24 to Mars to set up a settlement by as early as 2024, NBC News reports; the Dutch nonprofit hopes to make the competition into a reality-TV show. Fifty men and 50 women (hopefuls can check names on the finalists' list here) have been selected after undergoing personal online interviews with Norbert Kraft, the project's chief medical officer.

The remaining competitors will next be placed onto teams to see how well they handle group situations. "Being one of the best individual candidates does not automatically make you the greatest team player," Kraft says, per a Mars One news release. Meanwhile, Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp applauds the elite new group, saying, "The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars." But is the mission even really going to happen? As NBC notes, a 2014 MIT press release called some of the logistics "overly optimistic." (Read more Mars One stories.)

Reality-tv competitors...yeah sounds like they will get an emotionally stable group....

Kopernicus

Feb 27, 2015 8:44 AM CST

We could use this opportunity to unload part of our population--Bieber? Kardashian? The girl that sticks her tongue out? Obozo? Anyone whose read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows the reference. The society that suckers the useless 1/3 of its population to go colonize another planet by making them believe they were the most important 1/3 that had to go there first!

Bigolfascist

Feb 19, 2015 3:38 PM CST

Wish I had heard about it sooner. Admittedly, I am just an old fart, but I always hoped that the trip would happen, and that a Joe Six Pack like me could go. It's so much more evident that a commercial attempt is the only way to get it done. We go to the moon, then quit, except for a satellite program???? Over forty years wasted. At the very least we could have seeded the planet with mosses and lichens requiring little moisture and oxygen to begin building viability for higher life forms. One would think that visionaries would have promote exploration and settlement sooner than this.